Receiving the Eucharist and Confession

[OneFaith]

Do we have to go to confession everyweek before we receive the Eucharist? Because when I'm at church I see alot of people receive the Eucharist and not go to Confession and obviously the priests don't say anything?

[New Jack Swinger]

Hey OneFaith,

One only needs to go to confession if they are in a state of mortal sin. If they have not guilty of committing sins of grave matter with full knowledge and full consent, then they are to perform an act of contrition or use holy water devoutly and they can approach the Holy Eucharist.

Having said this, the priests should be evangelising the faithful on what constitutes a mortal sin, the different types of sin, what full knowledge and what full consent means etc. Many people approach the Eucharist and have no idea of Who they are receiving and how their lifestyles are undeserving of such a Grace.

[Stephen Spiteri]

Priests also need to be bold enough to say that if a someone is in a state of mortal sin then they may not receive the Eucharist. The priest that used to be the pastor of the parish I attend said such a thing one Sunday after some complaints were made (made in a spirit of charity and fraternal correction, of course) about some parishioners receiving the Eucharist whilst being in a state of mortal sin. Nothing was specified, but it was enough for the priest to say something at the next Sunday Mass. On that particular Sunday, what would normally be about 250 or so people going up to receive Communion, was a dozen or so (not including people that went up for a blessing). Praise God.

But this of course hinges on the efforts of the priest (and perhaps the more informed and better catechised parishioners) to inform parishioners about what mortal sin is as Charbel has pointed out.